Putnam Sheriff Donald Smith helped Guy Gentile, his chief advisor and a member of his Advisory Committee, obtain this badge.

The sheriff's identification cards issued to Guy Gentile.

Sheriff Donald Smith, at an April 28 American Heart Association event at Brewster High School. / Ricky Flores/The Journal News

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Putnam County Sheriff Donald B. Smith can hardly imagine how anyone could get the wrong idea about the official-looking ID cards he issues to political backers; “There is nothing on any card we issued that I believe could be misconstrued as being a member of law enforcement,” he said.

Smith is no less circumspect about doling out an official-looking badge to a political supporter; Smith even accompanied Guy Gentile to the equipment store so he could get his very own “Chief Advisor” badge; it is also emblazoned with “Putnam County Sheriff.”

Smith told staff writer Terry Corcoran for his Sunday report: “Because he (Gentile) was spending so much time with me as my chief adviser, I thought he should have a credential.” It is some credential, too, impossible for the uninitiated to distinguish from the genuine article. Gentile earned it, Smith said, as a reward for his campaign work. Gentile has donated thousands of dollars to Smith’s re-election campaign.

But could there be other perspectives on the official-looking swag? Consider these views, from what we will just go ahead and call the real world:

• Joseph Pollini, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor and retired New York Police Department detective, said police departments often give such “courtesy” badges to family members with the hope that if they get pulled over, the officer will cut them a break, issuing a warning instead of a summons. He said the idea is, the badges and IDs might get the holder special treatment. You think?

“That’s usually what it’s all about,” Pollini said. “Someone who’s not a cop wants some power or authority or ability to get out of a summons. You show the cop the badge or card and hopefully get a little better treatment.”

• Susan Lerner, executive director of the good-government group Common Cause of New York, said issuing ID cards to donors suggests that special treatment can be bought. “It encapsulates what is most problematic with the campaign-finance system. If someone gets pulled over and shows the cards, is the officer less inclined to issue a ticket? What other way will it be used?”

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(Smith said he would be “disappointed if anyone tried to use the card to get out of a ticket.” He added that his Advisory Committee “is not a department function, it’s more on the political side of the office. It involves people who believe in my vision and wanted to bring it to reality in Putnam County.”)

• And there was this from Kevin McConville, the retired Metropolitan Transportation Authority police chief challenging Smith in the Republican Party primary for sheriff: “The perception with these ID cards is that there’s a different set of rules for Don Smith’s friends and political supporters. Whether it’s real or imagined, it’s inappropriate.”

Raising expectations

Smith certainly isn’t the first police official to hand out ID cards to supporters; police benevolent associations also hand out such cards. (He is the only top police official we know who has actually accompanied a political supporter to the police supply store to score a badge.) But we think there is good reason to suspend the dispensing of official-looking police IDs, badges, decoder rings and the like to political supporters.

We think the practice undermines notions of fairness and is disrespectful to police officers. It sets up the expectation — at least in the minds of the recipients — that there are insiders authorized to ask for and receive special treatment. It also might suggest that those without the right political bona fides are subject to different treatment; should they have to pull out their checkbooks to rebalance the scales?

Moreover, as we have seen in recent headlines, it is not unusual for some individuals to take the make-believe too far. A Larchmont rabbi faces charges of impersonating a police officer, accused of flashing a miniature badge to motorists he stopped.

Last year, another member of Smith’s Advisory Committee was investigated for stopping a speeding teen in Mahopac and identifying himself as an “undercover” with the Sheriff’s Office. A special prosecutor found no criminality despite calling the actions “potentially reckless.”

Similar exuberance was also pointed to in the recently concluded murder trial of neighborhood watch volunteer and wannabe cop George Zimmerman, cleared by a Florida jury in the shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin.

Communities should support law enforcement; our communities do exactly that, and generously, through the tax levy, and other support. But there should be no expectation — certainly none fueled by the police themselves — of special favor or special treatment, a quid pro quo based upon political considerations. Police badges and IDs — even of the look-alike variety — should go only to those who protect and serve, the law enforcement who have earned them.